Effective Team Performance - Essay Example

Introduction Collaboration and high degree of commitment are two main considerations that help define the difference between groups and teams. Transforming a group into a cohesive team equipped with required skills, participation, communication, alignment of individual objectives with team objectives is key to success (Fraser and Neville 2003). Different team building concepts like Tuckman’s Team Development Model, Myers-Griggs Group Dynamics, Belbin’s Team Roles, team cohesion, conflict resolution, decision making and leadership are thoroughly discussed and analyze in this report to evaluate benefits of their practical application. During the project, as the team progressed through its four development stages described by Tuckman’s model (Beyerlein and Johnson 2000) many problems and conflicts surfaced, not beyond expectations. Although problems addressed as the team developed more collaboration, communication and understanding of team objectives, these could have been avoided (Kayes 2004). During the project, engagement of group in different activities discussed helped developing a cohesive team. This project report primarily aims to elaborate significance of reflection in learning and analyses transformation of experiences into learning process (Kolbs 1984). Also this report describes the process of development of a group into a team, associated problems, and narrates the key role of different concepts and theories. Problem and Context Soon after group formation, I was skeptical about the group future, team development, team interactions and achievement of desired objectives. Beyerlein and Johnson (2000) view it as initial stage of team forming based on Bruce Tuckman Model where group members develop understanding among them. According to McManus (2000), teams exhibit a strong commitment, high degree of cohesiveness and accomplishment towards common goal than groups. Chaney and Lyden (2000) advocate teamwork for improvement in problem solving, decision-making and communications. During the initial stage of group formation, members were not focused towards team objectives rather were busy in their personal and social issue. Even they were neither in knowledge nor prepared for meetings agenda items. Team members being less organized and non-interactive were shy and reluctant to share knowledge and experience. These issues introduced hurdles in task completion, team development, cohesion and improving collaboration. Task sequencing and interdependencies caused problems when the completion of one job depended upon input from another member, stated as interdependence conflict by Bartos and Wehr (2002). Major source of these interdependence conflict was ineffective, unclear or incomplete communication from one member to another during activity transfer, which Shapiro (2004) called communication breakdown conflict. Also Rahim (2011) described competitive conflict when a team member considers himself better than others and tries to prove it by finding his own way through the process. Despite all these, project was a great effort to understand the team development process and practical significance of different concepts and theories. Reflection Role of team leader is crucial to keep members focused towards common goal and improve team performance. According to Stewart and Manz (1995), lack of supervision and ineffective management are main causes of self-management team failures. To select a team leader, members decided to cast vote so that member with highest votes would be team leader, a process called cumulative voting method using majority criterion by Nitzan and Paroush (1985). During the fourth meeting, secret balloting was held and I was selected as the team leader. I was not confident enough to justify the responsibility, as I am shy and non-aggressive to persuade ideas and actions. However, members thought of me as responsible, effective in communication, and exhibiting a rational approach towards decision making, which Kemp (2012) strongly advocates. Belbin’s Team Role Descriptions of implementer, team worker, coordinator and evaluator to achieve group’s objectives in different group stages (Belbin 2010). According to Belbin (2010), implementer is disciplined, efficient, dedicated, reliable, knows practical implementation of ideas to achieve strategic goals; coordinator keeps team focused on objectives, and delegates to other team members for effective participation. Belbin’s (2010) evaluator makes logical, unbiased and effective decisions in a composed manner. He views team member as cooperative, perceptive and responsive in all situations. An implementer may possess some acceptable weaknesses like inflexibility and gradualness in responding to opportunities (Belbin 2010), while Fraser and Neville (2003) advocate high organizing and problem solving abilities making him most suitable for senior positions. As a group initiative, group under took behavioral style questionnaire to develop understanding and increase interaction in team members. From the exercise, I learnt that my behavioral style is spontaneous, which enabled me to improve my leadership style. Group undertook a crime investigation exercise where I exercised my role more effectively as team leader when one member was finding it difficult to carry out his task, to correlate results and lost focus. I assisted team member and made him understand his unstructured problem, thus helping him towards problem solving through logical analysis. Throughout the project, I remained in touch with him, guiding and assisting in all activities to deal with his part of problem, described as a quality of thinking and intuition dominant leaders in Myer-Briggs Group Dynamics model (Myers and McCauley 1985). I also coordinated and communicated all the relevant issues and solutions to problem solving while working with other team members. Being the team leader, I ensured that all team members were on same page and communicated task dependencies by coordinating all group activities through face-to-face conversation, email and text making use of modern technology. To improve communication in team, this exercise played a vital role where team members had to share information for investigating crime. Mainly, my role was of a coordinator and evaluator to keep synchronization between task activities, assessing and anlayzing the information in a logical, workable and impartial manner for effective decisions (Druskat and Woolf 1999). However, Strong and Anderson (1990) caution that such activities may become a free ride for the team members and may lose their essence. In another exercise, Lost on the moon, team had to determine relative importance of all the factors to achieve the objectives. During the exercise, I noticed lack of focus and concern among team members and adopted participative approach to maintain cohesion and motivation (Kippenberger 2002) and to improve sharing of knowledge, experience and ideas. During the session, team members came up with very logical reasoning and arguments presenting a unique point of view that was not possible by me alone. The mindset or in other words “mind lock” was critical to break so that team can enter in storming stage as described by Tuckman’s Team Development Model (Beyerlein and Johnson 2000). In this stage, team members compare different ideas and address issues to solve real problem. According to Beyerlein and Johnson (2000), this stage is critical to the growth of team but it could be contentious and unpleasant without tolerance and patience. One of the team members say Person-2 maintained an self-assured and non-cooperative behavior during Egg Flying Contest exercise, which Shaw and Linnecar (2007) termed as competing conflict style. Actually task of another member say Person-3 was dependent on the input from Person-2 who did not fully disseminate the required information. Main reason for such attitude of Person-2 was his possessiveness to claim the entire credit resulting in conflicting argument between the two. Bowditch and Buono (1997) highlight that if conflict is left to escalate to a point where people begin to feel defeated and an environment of distrust and suspicion is formed then failure of team is imminent. I told Person-2 the significance of his job, gave him due credit and advised him on importance of teamwork rather than individual goals (Thompson 2003). I reminded him that the next part of his assignment would be awaiting input from the Person-3’s activity in next phase so he need to appreciate interdependencies of activities. This maintained a discipline with in the team and aligned team focus towards objectives (Whelan 2012). Many team members used to withdraw and leave things with out any final resolve described as avoiding conflict in Thomas Kilman’s model (Shaw and Linnecar 2007). It was critical for the team transformation from storming stage to norming stage where scope of responsibilities of each member is broadened and accepted as Tuckman described in his model (Beyerlein and Johnson 2000). Although I demonstrated my team leader role as the team progressed through performing stage of Tuckman’s model (Beyerlein and Johnson 2000). I feel that during few activities I failed to present my role more effectively like from very beginning till last sessions team members engaged in social discussions consuming much of time. In my opinion that a methodology to keep team prepared and focused was required. Similarly one of the team members used to judge others with self-reference and tried to take over the leadership role. These created many opportunities for potential conflicts within the team and mostly were personality based; therefore, I engaged him in interest-based negotiations and principled bargaining to reach an agreement where other members could participate more effectively. The team member’s attitude seriously attempted to spiflicate team dynamics, still I managed the team members through negotiations and decision-making based on ethical principles. Alternative Course of Action The task went very overall without much conflict what was there was part and parcel of the group based activities. In my view, acknowledging and appreciating Tuckman’s team development model from very beginning of the group formation is critical to team development process (Beyerlein and Johnson 2000). As from the forming stage each group would face different problems, which restricted cohesion, and forming of group as team what really matters is the methodology to deal with the situation (McManus 2000). As a team leader if I had to redo the task, I would focus on preventing the problems and conflicts from occurring rather than correcting and solving (Bowditch and Buono 1997). I would take forming stage of the team building as an opportunity to establish team roles based on their skills and experiences, recognize each individual goal, align these with team objectives, predict team response under normal and pressurized conditions (Fraser and Neville 2003). This would prevent changing and transforming roles among team members, called change catalyst when a team member assumes the role of another member or team leader (Goleman and Cherniss 2001). Similarly, protocols for attending meetings and meeting agenda would be defined so no new groups are formed with in the group, discipline is maintained and communication breakdown is prevented (Midura and Glover 2005). In parallel to group task-based activities, meeting sessions must include activities to build trust in team and improve coordination and collaboration (Midura and Glover 2005). In my view, adopting a more directive and communicative behavior, strong guidance and suggestions in leader role keeps team focused and aligned towards common goal. However, as the group matures in later stages, change in leadership role from directive to participative approach may be more beneficial, called situational leadership approach by Northhouse (2010). Here, team members are encouraged to participate in decision making through consensus, present innovative and creative ideas, and to simulate learning environment by sharing knowledge. Also team commitment and esprit de corps through ethos leadership throughout all stages of team development is important (Fraser and Neville 2003). Adoption of Hill’s Team model provides the leader with a mental road map to help diagnose team problems, and then take appropriate action to correct team problems by focusing on problem solving techniques rather than jumping to unwarranted conclusions and formula answer (Northouse, 2010). Learning From the learning point of view, project equipped me with knowledge, tools and skills that would be much beneficial in practical life and are at the core heart of industry and made me aware of many unknown aspects of life (Stewart and Manz 1995). I learnt not to evaluate any person or situation on basis of perception or stereotype imaging rather adopting well-thought and logical evaluation of situation to avoid potential conflict. It is good to consume time to get team familiar to eachother and understand objectives for better cohesion and functioning (McShane and Glinow 2007). During the exercise, Tuckman’s team building model approach played a significant role as team progressed through all team-building stages. I feel confident to manage any team building activity in future whether in academic arena or real practical scenario. I also learnt to adopt and vary leader roles from directive to participative style based on group circumstances, a situational leader model approach (Northhouse 2010). Communication is at the heart of any team building process and must be considered with special emphasis. Although I am shy in nature, but my role in the team provided me with the opportunity to break silence barriers, as mostly I had to initiate any conversation. Also I had to coordinate and collaborate among all team members to facilitate deciphering and flowing of required information. Lastly, I also learnt different types of conflict resolving techniques, which I count towards an asset in my knowledge inventory and feel confident to deal with any conflict. I also learnt a more thorough and logical methodology to analyze and solve problems. I think that I would be able to effectively use these acquired skill in future task-based situations. Conclusion To conclude, I feel that my project went successful with limited conflicts; however, different situations that occurred were dealt effectively to contribute in team building process. Still some of these conflicts and problem solving sessions could have been handled and managed in a better manner. From the project, I developed a lot confidence and learnt tools, techniques and skills to lead the team. The project made it evident that reflection has a significant role in learning process and presents opportunities to analyze the situation and look ways for improvement. With the skills and experience gained, I am confident that I would be able to apply these in any given practical situation and lead a team more effectively towards a common goal by developing emotional and task cohesiveness. References Bartos, O. and Wehr, P. (2002) Using Conflict Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press. Belbin, R. (2010) Team Roles at Work. 2nd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, p.32. Beyerlein, M. and Johnson, D. (2000) Team Development. 5th ed. New York: Elsevier Science Inc, p.143. Chaney, L. and Lyden, J. (2000) Making US Teams Work. Supervision, 61 (6). Druskat, U. and Wolff, B. (1999) Effects And Timing of Developmental Peer Appraisals In Self-managed Work Groups. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84 (1), p.58-74. Fraser, A. and Neville, S. (2003) Team Building : A Practical Guide. London: University of Minnesota Press. Goleman, D. and Chermiss, C. (2001) The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. San Francisco: Jossy-Bass Pubishers. Kayes, D. (2004) The 1996 Mount Everest Climbing Disaster: The Breakdown of Learning in Teams. Human Relations, 57 (10), p.1263-1284. Kemp, M. (2012) Moving out of the Box: Tools for Team Decision Making. Westport: Stanford University Press. Kippenberger, T. (2002) Leadership Styles. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Kolbs, D. (1984) Experiential Learning. London: Kogan Page Publications. Kurtzberg, T. and Naquin, C. (2011) The Essentials of Job Negotiations: Proven Strategies for Getting What You Want. California: ABC-CLIO Publishers. McManus, K. (2000) Do We Have Teams?. HE Solutions, 32 (21). McShane, S. and Glinow, M. (2007) Organizational Behavior: Essentials. New Dehli: McGraw Hill. Midhura, D. and Glover, D. (2005) Essentials of Team Building: Principles And Practices. Windsor: Human Kinetics Publishes. Myers, I. and McCaulley, B. (1985) Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator. California: Consulting Psychologists Press, p.4-5. Nitzan, S. and Paroush, J. (1985) Collective Decision Making: An Economic Outlook. New York: Cambridge University Press, p.109. Northhouse, P. (2010) Leadership : Theory and Practice. California: Sage Publications. Rahim, A. (2011) Managing Conflict in Organizations. 4th ed. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, p.18. Shapiro, D. (2004) Conflict and Communication: A Guide Through The Labyrinth of Conflict Management. New York: International Debate Education Association, p.83. Shaw, P. and Linnecar, R. (2007) Business Coaching: Achieving Practical Results Through Effective Engagement. Chichester: Cape Stone Publishing Ltd, p.45-47. Stewart, L. and Manz, C. (1995) Leadership for Self-Managing Work Teams: A Typology And Integrative Model. Human Relations, 48 (7), p.747-770. Strong, J. and Anderson, R. (1990) Free-Riding in Group Projects: Control Mechanisms and Preliminary Data. Journal of Marketing Education, 12 (2), p.61-67. Thompson, L. (2003) The Social Psychology of Organizational Behaviour: Key Readings. NewHove: Psychology Press. Whelan, A. (2010) Creating Effective Teams: A Guide for Members and Leaders. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications. Read More